Home Made "Red" List

We each know our own communities. We all know who the problem people are. I'm sure you have spoken to your neighbors about "that house" and "those people" who just insist on being the scourge of the neighborhood, the town, or the county.

You may just want to really think about your options should things get really sideways in our society. Let's face it, these people are barely being kept in check by the existing laws, societal conventions, and the people we pay to carry around guns and keep the peace.

What do you think will happen if all restrictions just disappear, or are just unenforceable?

I understand that this isn't a pleasant subject, but it is one that needs to be discussed. Not all of us are fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to live in the middle of nowhere where this subject could be just a mental exercise. I say "unfortunate" because isolation brings its own issues.

It's easy to express bravado, "Why, I'll just whip out my shotgun!" as one of my friends is fond of saying, but serious attention has to be paid to the issue.

You, I, and most of the people out there can be reasoned with. Most of us don't want any trouble to begin with, and so discussion tends to mitigate the worst of possible outcomes of conflict.

However, there are people with whom reason is an abstract concept.

Most of us have had experiences with the bully and his gang of hangers on in school. Most of us tried to do our best to avoid being in a position of being exposed. Frequently, there was this one kid who always seemed to get the worst of it.

Many of the kids would simply stand aside and allow the bully and his gang do what they would, and allow the authorities (teachers, school administrators, etc) be the enforcers of the peace. Typically nothing more than harsh words, a parent teacher conference, and some extra work would be applied to the bully in order to bring him into line. More often than not, the fruits of his previous anti-social behavior would be the motivations for his subsequent abuses of his fellow students.

School yard stuff would result in a bloody nose, some bumps and bruises, a stung ego and maybe some torn clothing.

Add ten to twenty years to the people on the school ground.

The bully and his hangers on have grown up and are of age to legally (or illegally) obtain guns and other weapons. They've networked with other thugs and created loosely (or heavily) organized gangs or other criminal organizations.

Most people don't want to get involved when they witness criminal activity, even though one of their fellow citizens is being harmed, and even though these same people know the next time it could be them at the mercy of the thugs. Most of them are content to allow those we pay to enforce the peace handle all of the inconvenient and messy details.

If society breaks down, there will NOT be any hired help to handle the cleanup. In fact, if nothing is done to proactively address the threat, there may not be anyone period.

You will find yourself right back in the schoolyard with a bully that knows the teacher is out to lunch. Permanently. That there will be, in all likelyhood, no repercussions for his actions.

Your wife, your children, you, and everyone else will have be consumed as prey. Oh, you may not all be killed and left to rot, but living under the thumb of people who may just decide that your wife or kids are just what they need to slake their sexual thirsts will bring about its own kind of death.

You will need to be responsible for ensuring that the threat never materializes.

The next time you've gathered with your like-minded neighbors, it will be mental exercise time. You'll need to best decide how to safeguard your little domain.

Keep in mind that survivors, no matter their age, can come back and haunt you. If it makes you feel better, you can always ask them if they believe in Charles Darwin before the lights go out.